Jackson Lunch Hour Series

Related Sites

Contact

The Ruth and Harry Jackson Lunch Hour Series is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Coming February 12, 2014:

Yvonne Murphy

Poet

About the Author:

Yvonne C. Murphy’s first book of poetry, Aviaries, was published in March 2011, by Carolina Wren Press. A Professor of The Arts at SUNY Empire State College in East Syracuse, NY, she has a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature and has worked as an editor, publications writer, journalist, library clerk, storyteller, researcher and artist-in residence in public schools, community organizations, hospitals and art museums. In June 2011, she won the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for “Excellence in Scholarly and Creative Activities.”

Event begins at 12:30 P.M.

Coming February 19, 2014:

Ida Trebicka, piano; Greg Wood, cellist

This performance will feature music from Albania, including the world’s premier of two selections: "L'AURA" by Eriona Rushiti and "Love your Name" by Thoma Simaku, for solo piano.

About the Performers:

Ida Tili-Trebicka, pianist, is Assistant Professor of Music in the Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University. A native of Albania, she has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and China as orchestral soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and collaborative pianist. Her chamber music concerts with members of Paris, Athens, Rome, Munich, and Bari-Italy Symphonic Orchestras, as well as the musicians of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. Other recent performances abroad include those in Florence, Italy at the Galleria Dell’Accademia in 2006 as well as in China with SU’s Hendricks Chapel Choir. She performs regularly at the Cazenovia Counterpoint concert series as part of the Society for New Music events, as well as at Civic Morning Musicals concert series.

Gregory Wood, cellist, is an instructor of music at the Syracuse University Setnor School of Music. Mr. Wood received his bachelor of music degree in cello performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Lynn Harrell, Jack Kirstein, and Zara Nelsova. He also studied chamber music with the LaSalle Quartet. Mr. Wood received a master’s degree in counseling from SUNY Oswego and recently completed a master’s degree in music education from the Syracuse University Setnor School of Music, where he has been on the string faculty since 1987. He has performed with the Aspen Festival Orchestra and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO), including a CSO tour to Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. As a member of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra (SSO), he performed on many occasions in Carnegie Hall and is currently a member of the Baroque Ensemble. An active recitalist in the Central New York area, Mr. Wood has performed with the Skaneateles Festival, the Society for New Music, Civic Morning Musicals, and Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music. He also performed as soloist on multiple occasions with the SSO and Syracuse University Orchestra, among others. Mr. Wood has recently performed with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in Syracuse and in New York City for an appearance on Good Morning America.

About the Performers:

Established in 1903, the B Sharp Musical Club is a non-profit organization celebrating its 110th year of making music in central New York. The club supports music and the arts in the Mohawk Valley community, presents free concerts and musical outreach throughout the year, and annually awards competitive scholarships in Voice, Piano, Strings, and Woodwinds-Brass-Percussion to talented young musicians. The object of this club shall be to encourage a broader culture in the performing arts among its members and in the community at large. The B Sharp Musical Club is organized exclusively for charitable and educational purposes. Both performing and supporting memberships are available at www.bsharpcny.org.

Event begins at 12:30 P.M.

Coming March 12, 2014:

Katherine Howe

Novelist

About the Author:

Katherine Howe is the New York Times bestselling author of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane and The House of Velvet and Glass. Her third novel, an updating of The Crucible set in a Massachusetts prep school, is called Conversion and will be released from Putnam on July 1, 2014. She has hosted “Salem: Unmasking the Devil” for the National Geographic Channel, and her fiction has been translated into over twenty-five languages. A native Texan, she lives in New England and upstate New York, where she teaches at Cornell and is at work on her next novel.

Event begins at 12:30 P.M.

Coming April 2, 2014:

Junior B Sharp Music Club

Talented area music students

About the Performers:

The Junior B Sharp Musical Club was established in 1916 by the Senior B Sharp Musical Club to augment the musical offerings of the schools and private teachers for talented music students in the area. Through regular monthly meetings, the Jr. B Sharp Club gives its student members opportunities for solo and ensemble performance, contact with other outstanding area music students, and involvement in special feature programs and workshops presented by guest professionals.

Junior B Sharp’s annual concerts have raised funds for a variety of local and international organizations. Local organizations include the Utica Zoo, the House of the Good Shepherd, the Utica Symphony, and the Parkinson's Project of the Presbyterian Home. Other Charities benefiting have been the Music Therapy Project at NYC homeless shelters, Heifer International, Doctors Without Borders, the Mr.Holland's Opus Foundation, and Golisano Children's Hospital. www.bsharpcny.org

Event begins at 12:30 P.M.

Coming April 9, 2014:

Nicholas Brewer

Piano | Music of Rachmaninoff, Ravel, and Chopin

About the Performer:

Nicholas Brewer, pianist, hails from Tucson, Arizona where he began piano lessons at the age of five. During his 16 years of practice he has focused primarily on classical music, although he studied jazz piano for 4 years. Brewer has passed all of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music piano exams and seven of the eight music theory exams. For the past three years he has studied with Sar-Shalom Strong.

He has performed many times in the University of Arizona's Centennial Hall and Hamilton College's Wellin Hall. His junior recital was at Hamilton College in the spring of 2013 when he performed works by Beethoven, Debussy, and Kapustin. His senior recital is on Sunday, April 6th in Wellin Hall, Schambach Center for the Performing Arts, Hamilton College, and will feature music of Rachmaninoff, Ravel, and Chopin.

Brewer is a senior Computer Science major at Hamilton College with minors in Music and Art. Nick’s interest in Computer Science and Visual Art will culminate in his senior project at Hamilton College through which he has developed a visual generating program for Music Professor, Sam Pellman. He also enjoys painting, cooking, video games, jazz, songwriting, singing, playing guitar, and fencing.

Event begins at 12:30 P.M.

Special Thursday Evening Event:

April 10, 2014:

Juliana Gray

Poet | Winner of the 2013 Eugene Paul Nassar Poetry Prize

About the Author:

Juliana Gray’s second poetry collection, Roleplay, won the 2010 Orphic Prize and was recently published by Dream Horse Press. Her first book of poetry, The Man Under My Skin, was published by River City Publishing in 2005. Recent poems have appeared in or are forthcoming from Barrow Street, Measure, 32 Poems, Waccamaw and elsewhere.

Gray grew up in Anniston, Alabama, and attended the University of Alabama. She earned her M.A. from The University of Tennessee and her Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati. Gray taught on the faculty of the Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference, and worked on the staff of the Sewanee Writers’ Conference for more than a decade. She lives in western New York and is an associate professor of English at Alfred University.

Event begins at 7:30 P.M.

Coming April 16, 2014

A Taste of the Arts

A Celebration

About the Event:

Brought to you by The Department of Performing and Fine Arts, A Taste of the Arts will showcase student art work from the 2012-13 academic year. This is a multimedia event, including visual artwork, poetry, theatre, and music. Ashley Goguen and the Utica College Band will be performing, among others. In addition, we will be providing a sampling of various cultural cuisines represented at Utica College, and in the local community. The Utica College Chemistry Department will be creating foods for sampling using Molecular Gastronomy.

The event will take place from 12:30-1:30 p.m. in the Ellen Clarke Lounge and Strebel Auditorium. It is free and open to the public. All ages are welcome.

Event begins at 12:30 P.M.

Coming April 23, 2014

Greg Ames

Writer

About the Author:

Greg Ames is the author of Buffalo Lockjaw, a novel that won the 2009 Book of the Year Award from the New Atlantic Booksellers Association (NAIBA). Buffalo Lockjaw was voted #1 in The Believer's 2010 Reader Survey. Greg Ames's work has appeared in Best American Nonrequired Reading, The Southern Review, McSweeney's, and The Sun Magazine, among others. He has been shortlisted for the Pushcart Prize. He splits his time between New York City and Hamilton, New York, where he's an assistant professor at Colgate University.

Event begins at 12:30 P.M.

Coming April 30, 2014:

Utica College Concert Choir

David Kolb, director Alane Varga, accompanist

About the Performers:

Please join us for this special performance of the Utica College Choir, directed by David Kolb.

David Kolb a graduate of Hamilton College with double concentrations in music and mathematics, has taught math at Mohawk Valley Community College, and directed choirs for the Utica Maennerchor and the Stone Presbyterian Church in Clinton. He is currently the Director of Music for First Presbyterian Church in Rome.

After several years’ hiatus, the Utica College Concert Choir was reconstituted in fall 2010 with David as its director. He is also a frequent performer in local theatrical productions and sings with the local music ensemble Above Standards. David was a featured soloist in the production of Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors in Syracuse and in the Hamilton College and Community Masterworks Chorale’s performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams Fanstasy on Christmas Carols performed at Hamilton College last year. This year he was one of the featured soloists in the December 3, 2013 Masterworks Chorale’s performance of Bach’s Magnificat at Hamilton College.

Alane Varga, piano accompanist, began her career at Utica College in fall 1983, as a counselor in the Academic Support Services. She was cofounder with Dr. Della Ferguson of the Womyn’s Resource Center at Utica College. In 2011, Alane was appointed Dean of Students at Utica College. She has been musically active as an accompanist in a range of venues, including community coffeehouses, musicals performed at Utica College reflecting her love of Broadway, and in the Professor Harry F. and Mary Ruth Jackson Utica College Lunch Hour Series.

Event begins at 12:30 P.M.

Coming May 7, 2014:

Utica College Concert Band

Michael J. DiMeo, director

About the Performers: The Utica College Concert Band was founded by Dr. Louis Angelini in 1981. Frank Galime then directed the band until his retirement. Currently the band is directed by Michael J. DiMeo, retired director of bands from New Hartford High School. At New Hartford High School, Michael helped their marching band become State Champions on four occasions. He has devoted his time to several competitive marching band circuits and received two outstanding soloist awards as Head Brass Instructor/Soloist for the Syracuse Brigadiers Drum and Bugle Corps. In addition to directing the Utica College Concert Band, Mike conducts the New Hartford Citizens Band in the summer and was a member of the versatile group “Classified” (which was recently inducted into the Rome Arts Hall of Fame.)

The Utica College Concert Band has a well balanced instrumentation and includes students, local music educators, members of the Utica College staff and local community. The band, for students, can be taken as a liberal arts course for credit or just as an audit.

The Band plays music from the standard band literature that is both challenging and musically rewarding. They perform once per semester at the Professor Harry F. and Mary Ruth Jackson Lunch Hour Series. Other regular performances include an annual Concert for Veterans and a combined concert with MVCC Concert Band. The Band also performs numerous programs for local events and at senior citizen communities such as the Masonic and Presbyterian Homes.